Browns threesome key to offensive success

Friday

Nov 30, 2007 at 12:01 AMNov 30, 2007 at 1:14 AM

How long has it been since Browns fans have seen a season like this? Here’s one indicator: Romeo Crennel and Chris Palmer were coaching under Bill Parcells in New England. Bill Belichick was finally having a good season in Cleveland, going 8-3 after 11 games.

WITH BOX COMPARING THIS SEASON'S BIG THREE TO THOSE OF PAST SEASONS

Steve Doerschuk

How long has it been since Browns fans have seen a season like this? Here’s one indicator: Romeo Crennel and Chris Palmer were coaching under Bill Parcells in New England. Bill Belichick was finally having a good season in Cleveland, going 8-3 after 11 games.

After 13 games, Belichick’s 1994 Browns were 9-4. If Crennel’s 2007 Browns beat the Cardinals and Jets within the next 10 days, they’ll be 9-4.

A key to the breakthrough has been fitting a new offense to the talents of receivers Kellen Winslow Jr., Braylon Edwards and Joe Jurevicius.

Browns fans have never seen a big three producing like them. Crennel says he has never in 30-plus years of coaching been on a team that had such a threesome.

“We’ve never had that total complement like that, three of them being as good as they are,” he said. “Usually, you have one, maybe two. Generally, you don’t have three.”

Yet whereas the trio’s combined 2,254 yards and 19 TDs are an expansion-era wonder, aren’t they simply doing what the Browns are paying for?

The only players drafted higher than Edwards in 2005 were Alex Smith and Ronnie Brown. It’s almost unheard of for a tight end to be drafted where Winslow was, No. 6 overall in 2005. Jurevicius is a veteran who has helped three teams reach Super Bowls.

That they are producing together is at the heart of the offense’s newfound magic.

Edwards is on pace for an 83-catch, 1,300-yard, 16-TD season. He has a great shot at breaking franchise single-season records for receiving yards (Webster Slaughter, 1,236, 1989) and TDs (Gary Collins, 13, 1963). Teammates who cover him in practice say they don’t see any better talent in games.

Cornerback Daven Holly said, “His talent is through the roof, man. Watch all the acrobatic catches, his one-handers, his jumping. ... We’re starting to see him come out of his shell a little bit.”

Winslow is on course for a 90-catch, 1,270-yard year. His Hall of Fame father’s best year with the Chargers was 89 catches for 1,290 yards in 1980

He is beginning to fulfill the predictions of scouts who said before a two-year injury nightmare that the son would be as good as the father.

“I don’t want K2 to try to be is to try to be his father,” Crennel said. “That’s why he’s K-2. He’s not K-1.
“Different player. Different time. But I want Kellen Jr. to be as good as he can be.”

Jurevicius is on course for a 55-catch, 707-yard year. The best of his nine previous NFL seasons probably was 2005, when he made 55 catches for 694 yards for Seattle — not counting his postseason numbers, which include a five-catch, 93-yard game against Pittsburgh in Super Bowl XL.

The 6-foot-5 Jurvevicius is a big-time chain mover. He and Antonio Gates are tied for third in the NFL with 22 third-down catches.

He can be murder on a 5-foot-10 cornerback.

“It’s tough, man,” Holly said. “He’s a veteran who uses his body. He blocks off a defender and still catches the ball. With his length, he can catch bad throws.”

“I like the way he prepares. He kind of molds that receiving group together.”